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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5018134" data-attributes="member: 22260">First, if it hasn’t been noted, XRPs Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe is the best reference I know for these issues. But it still has the same problem that all these exercises have. (oops, it has). The problem is that there is economy of a fantasy land, and the economy of the game.These are different things.In the economy of the fantasy land, there as so many parameters and fudge factors, you can come up with whatever you wan’t. Want a monetized economy (to take a random example)? Easy, dwarves, treasure hunters, and wizards all ensure that lots of coin is around, and of course people use it. In fact, it might be hard to reconcile “realistic” barter with the amount of treasure implied in the various editions of D&D. The economy of the game is different because it may actually matter for the game. Can you buy, sell, or make magic items? Can you walk into a small village and buy plate mail? Is there a market in exotic animals and mounts? How long does it take to build a castle? Is the local civilization capable of making sea worthy vessels? Do you have a spell that makes ships sea-worthy?And the big thing the game (or this exercise) demands  is only realistic under special conditions: stability. How many hours does it take to build a wall, and how much does that cost? These things are not fixed. Even assuming stable technology, they are not fixed. Yes, in theory there are links between world and game economy. A world with the low population density explicit in 3E would not seem to be able to sustain the relatively complex 3E economy without a big reliance on fudge factors. But they are there: druidic magic raising crops yields, heavy dwarf and dungeon based production raising mineral yields. Guild magic increasing craft productivity. And of course  population density (and you know this is the key, right?) cuts both ways. Anyways, keeping in mind also that trade should be severely restricted by all those monsters wandering around, its unclear if even these fudge factors would allow a party to go into a tiny village and buy swords, horses, breastplates…as the 3E rules said that they could. But why do the rules say that? To keep this stuff from getting in the way of the game. It probably best to think in game terms, or more general fantasy terms, and just figure out what you want to achieve. Then come up with some explanation(s) to make it seem plausible. (of course, that is probably what you are doing). However, to show I am a good sport, in a later post, I may try to present some actual economics. But they not be what you expect.</blockquote>

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